Ferrari
returns to the Championship, and Porsche is determined to achieve results
and worked hard to obtain them.

The
German house tests a 908 in Monza, with the objective of
racing it as hard as possible during 18 straight hours to detect possible faults.
Porsche engineers had decided to substitute the extremely heavy, but very
solid six-speed gearbox for a lighter, and equally effective 5-speed gearbox.
During the test, Hans Hermann went off track and destroyed the car; hence
the test was early interrupted. The only parts that were saved were the engine
and gearbox, which were unassembled for inspection of possible premature damages.
Nothing abnormal was found, and it was considered that everything was OK for the
beginning of the season.

Not
withstanding these preparations with the already effective-proven 908; it
was during the winter of 1968-69 that Porsche was discretely preparing it’s
new model, based on a 12-cylinder engine and 4,494 cm3 to fully benefit from the
freedom of the World Manufacturers Championship regulations.

Under
the command of engineer Ferdinand Piech (actual president of Volkswagen
Group), the 917 was presented to society at the Geneva Motor Show,
on March 12th, 1969.

The
display model was painted in white with green livery on the front end of the car,
and the informative pamphlet quoted a retail price of 16,000 sterling pounds.

The
F.I.A. representative Dean Delamont instructs Porsche that
prior to homologation, and according to the new regulations, they must
physically present the 25 units required. The term for such inspection was set
in a four-week period.

A
month later, in April 1969, the C.S.I. had inspected 25 fully finished Porsche
917´s, minimum quantity required for the homologation. Engineer Piech
felt so proud, that offered Delamont to take a ride in any of the units,
gesture that he declined.

On
May 1st, 1969 the Porsche 917 was officially accepted by the F.I.A.
to race.

The
brand new 917 had a multi-tubular structure made out of a lightweight
material on which the German automaker had been previously experimenting; glass
fiber body and epoxy resin, which made it extremely lightweight.

Hans
Mezger, who had previously collaborated in the design of the engine for the 908,
designed the engine. It was a flat-12 horizontally opposed, which resulted from
|”putting together” two 6 cylinder, 2.2-litre engines from the 911.
The engine intake was located in the middle of the crankshaft in order to avoid
unwanted torsional vibrations. The cylinders were chromed, and the connecting
rods were made of forged titanium. It pumped out 520 bhp, although later, it
evolved, and easily reached 600bhp

On
February 2nd, Porsche introduces 4 works 908 long tails,
but none of them achieves to finish the race. Nevertheless, when the last Porsche
abandoned in the 18th hour of the race, such car was leading with 45
laps of advantage over Mark Donahue’sLola T70 Chevrolet, who
was in 2nd place.

In
spite of the abandons, the power of the 908´s was more than proven. Rico
Steinemann (Porsche director at the time) was quoted: ”We
have proven that we have the best cars, but that’s not enough”.

All four
cars retired due to failures of the crankshaft timing drive gear which also
drives the oil pump. Once in Stuttgart, the gears were replaced with a
more durable steel alloy. It was evident that had the Monza tests
not been interrupted, the problem could have been remedied without the price of
leaving Daytona empty-handed.

A
press conference organized by Porsche in Hockenheim
allowed to know the detail of the mechanical problems that the cars were
suffering from. References: 1)
Transmission of the 908 of Kaushen-Lins at Le Mans 2) Rulemanes of wheel
at Le Mans 3) and 3') light steel Gears with several broken gearings.
Problems of the 908 in Daytona 4) Gearbox of the 908 of Mitter-Schutz in
Monza 5) Directional bar of the 908 of Mitter-Schutz in the Targa 6) Oil
lines of the 908 of Siffert-Redman in Le Mans 7) Gearbox of the 908 of
Lins-Larrousse in the Targa 8) Clutch of the 917 of Stommelen-Ahrens in
Le Mans

Another
problem that had arisen, was the entry of combustion gases to the cockpit, which
made the drivers suffer from mild intoxication. The engine vibrations under
heavy demand, loosened the exhaust connections, and toxic gases entered the
driver’s habitat, making the cockpits true “gas chambers”.

During
the Monza testing, this could not been detected, because of the
high-speed configuration of the circuit, larger ratios were used, hence, the
engine were not as demanded as Daytona.

In
synthesis, Jo Siffert, got the Pole Position with the 908 Long Tail,
but the race was won by one of Roger Penske´sLola T70 Mk3b.

In
this race, the Porsche 908 Spyder Sebring were introduced, honoring the
circuit where the 908 made its debut.

This
new model, had been successfully tested in January, but nevertheless, another
testing was scheduled prior to the race, this time in Weissach,
but snow made it impossible, so the team headed to Sebring, with
intentions of testing there. On test day, 100kp/h winds and heavy rains made the
test, once again, impossible to take place, which is why they decided to take
advantage of the full 5 hours of the official practices. To make matters worse,
in only five hours, they had to find the appropriate set-up for the car, and the
drivers to familiarize with the new car.

The chassis
problems

During
the official practices, one of the 908 suffered a broken chassis in a
place where diverse structural tubing connected in the front of the car. (see
the arrow in the picture).

At
the early stages of the race, the 908 of Hans Herrmann and
Kurt Ahrens made a pit stop with a broken chassis in the same
place where the other unit had suffered days before. A few minutes later,
Jo Siffert, who had pitted earlier due to a front suspension
problem caused by an off-track encounter with the guardrail, suffered
the exact same broken chassis problem; and a while later, Mitter’s
car and the 2-litre 907 of Rolf Stommelen-Joe Buzzeta unit
suffered the same inconvenient, nevertheless, the Stommelen-Buzzeta
car was able to continue after an emergency repair, and managed to
finish third overall achieving the first 4 points of the year in the World
Manufacturers Championship.

The
only 908 that didn’t suffer the fatidic chassis problem, was the one
drove by Vic Elford-Richard Atwood, but one of the vertical fins was
broken due to the aforementioned vibrations, and perforated the fuel cell, which
obviously damaged their performance.

Rico
Steinemann suggested that the fault for the defective chassis was due to the
extreme roughness of the circuit –an American airfield, even though later he
surely was grateful that the problem appeared in such an acute way, for it
resulted in Porsche redoubling it’s efforts, and improved the cars in
great measure.

In
synthesis, the Pole Position was for Chris Amon in the Ferrari 312P,
but managed only 2nd place in the race, which was won by a Ford
GT40 (Ickx-Oliver). The best finish for Porsche was third
place.